All I Want

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Zack Russ was a quiet boy. If you looked into his eyes, you would see great
sadness, hurt, and sorrow. At the age of seven, his father was hit and killed
by a drunk driver, something Zack never quite got over. Even now, at 17, he
often cries himself to sleep. The pain in his heart, at times, was too great to
bear.

"All I want is to see his face again," he told his mother one fine summer
afternoon, "I want him to embrace me in his arms again." Before his mother
could respond, Zack walked out of the house with his head down, his hands
shoved deep in his pockets.

He walked for miles, as he often did, caught up in his thoughts. As he walked
down the road he was thinking, "What if..."

Like, "What if his dad hadn't gotten into the car that day?"

Or, "What if the other driver hadn’t been drunk?"

Or, "What if the drunk had stopped at that red light instead of running through
it and killing his father?"

All these thoughts ran through his mind. They never varied and had become a
mantra for him to repeat to himself, over and over.

Zack stopped in front of a house where a little boy was hugging his dad. The
boy was wearing a cape made out of a red bed sheet. "I'm Superman, Daddy!" The
boy yelled, as only a child could.

Zack shook his head and moved on, finding it hard to see a son and father
together. Soon, he found his way to a local park. As he stood there, gazing up
at the green trees, a girl came over to him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hi, Zack! I didn’t expect you here today," she said.

"I was just walking around and came here because it’s peaceful. What are you
doing here, Sandy?" Zack inquired.

"I’m babysitting my neighbor’s kids while they were out. The little buggers
wanted to come here."

Zack looked and saw the three little boys running around, having a good time.
He just stared at them, watching them play; his mind focused on their happy
smiles.

Sandy looked into his eyes and knew what was on his mind, as she always seemed
to know just what Zack was feeling and thinking. They had been friends for as
long as they could remember, and over the last year they let their friendship
bloom into a relationship.

"You’re thinking about your father again, aren’t you?"

"Again? I've never stopped," Zack turned to face her.

"Well...what's done is done, you can't bring him back, you know." She took his
hand and squeezed it in an attempt to soften her harsh words.

Her hand was soft and warm inside his, yet he pulled away. It made him
uncomfortable, in his present state, " know, but all I want is to have him
back in my life. It’s I’ll ever want."

With a pause and a resigned shake of his head, he continued, " got to go."

"I'll call you later?"

"Alright," Zack said as he walked off.

He walked for another half hour or so before he came upon a perfectly round
hole in the middle of the sidewalk. Zack gaped at the hole, and then bent down
to get a better look. It was completely dark inside, as if the bright afternoon
sunlight could not penetrate. Curiosity took over and Zack, who was feeling a
bit foolish but intrigued by the mysterious sight, stuck his head down the hole
to see if something was there, but it was too dark to see anything. For some
reason he couldn’t explain, he was fascinated by the hole. He picked up a small
pebble and dropped it into the hole, hoping to hear how long it took for the
pebble to strike the bottom. He waited and counted the seconds, but never heard
rock hit the bottom.

"That's strange," Zack said to no one in particular. He pulled his ever-present
flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on, shining the beam of light into
the hole.

"That's really strange," his eyes grew wide, for in the light he could see the
bottom of the hole. It looked as if it was only about 10 feet deep. So he
tossed another rock into the hole and once again, heard no sound as the rock
disappeared from sight.

Zack sat down and thought about this strange hole in the middle of the
sidewalk. With a determined shake of his head, he stood and made up his mind.
He was going to jump into the hole and see what happened.

"Here it goes," he said as he jumped right down into the hole. He expected to
feel the jar of his bones as he landed on the bottom, but instead he saw a
flash of light and all went dark.

* * *

When Zack came to, he was standing in a dimly lit room. He tried to look around
and see where he was, but everything was dark. The only light was coming from
over his head, but it didn’t appear to be light from the hole’s opening, rather
some source he couldn’t identify.

"What the heck," he said to himself, "where am I?"

"Welcome, friend," a soft voice spoke from behind him.

Zack whirled around to see that the light was emanating from the center of a
tall man with blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing a black suit.

Zack pondered the odd man standing before him, "Who are you? Where am I?"

When the man spoke, his voice was soothing and soft, "Most call me 'I'. As for
where you are, you’re in what most call 'All I Want'."

"'All I Want'? What’s that?"

"A place in-between fantasy and reality. ‘All I Want’ is a place where you can
speak out your heart’s desire and instantly receive it."

"And who are you in this place?"

"I...am the keeper of 'All I Want'."

"Why did you bring me here, I?"

"I didn’t bring you here, you came here."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You want something, you want something so… so desperately, a door was opened
for you to get what you want. You came through that door when you jumped in the
hole, and it brought you here."

"I don’t understand," Zack whispered, shaking his head in disbelief.

I stood there, looking at Zack, then calmly said, "Let me explain. You want
something, something that no man can give to you, so a door was opened, a door
to ‘All I Want’. Here you can get what you want. Observe my friend, 'C', he’s
talking to someone else who wants something."

Zack looked over to where I was pointing. There, a light shown on two figures
as if a switch had been flipped. Standing in the light was another man dressed
in the same black suit that I was wearing, talking to a small boy. Zack looked
harder, and to his amazement, he saw that it was the same boy that he had seen
earlier with the cape, pretending to be Superman.

"All you have to do," C was saying to the boy, "is say 'All I want is...' then
you name what you want and will receive it."

The boy smiled and said, "All I want is to be Superman!"

As soon at the words left the boys lips, shimmering colored lights enveloped
his body. They swirled and flashed around the boy and when the lights faded
away there stood, no longer a boy, but a man, in a Superman outfit. Two seconds
later the boy-become-man disappeared, with no trace of him ever being there.

The light slowly faded away, and Zack turned back to I.

"So you see, that is how it’s done. You can only make one wish, then when you
receive it, you leave this place. Forever. So. What do you want, Zack?"

Zack couldn’t believe I, it all didn’t make sense, so he simply spoke, "I don’t
know what to wish for."

"Yes you do, Zack. What you want, is in here," I pointed to Zack’s heart.

Zack put his head down, "Yes, but what I really want is impossible to get."

"Not here, Zack. Not here. Just say it." I explained, yet again.

Zack waited a moment then said, with pure hope in his voice, "All I want, is
what I have inside my heart."

At that, the colored lights started to shimmer in the center of the room. They
twirled and twisted, turned and flashed. When they faded away, a man dressed
all in white stood there looking around.

Zack’s mouth dropped, as he slowly walked towards the man. With his eyes
shining wet, Zack choked back his tears and slowly whispered, "Dad?"

The man glanced at him in amazement, "Zack?"

With that, Zack ran to the man and fell into his fathers open arms. At the
moment they touched, both started crying and in a bright flash of light, they
were gone.

* * *

Now outside the hole, which was slowly closing itself up, Zack looked at his
father and said, "I missed you so much, Dad."

"I know, and I missed you, son."

"This is all I ever wanted since the crash, and now I have it," he smiled, "The
question is, how do we break the news to mom?"

The two laughed and with a hug they walked home, watching Superman fly above
them.


***If you like this story, read the poem/song I wrote, "All I Want -- The Poem/Song".

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